On January 25th, members of the Kent County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Team executed a search and seizure at 27315 Morgnec Road, home of Joseph Bonn Towner, age 56, near Chestertown MD. During the search of the residence, extensive evidence of an indoor marijuana growing operation was recovered. These items included, but were not limited to, fluorescent and incandescent growing lamps, plant cloning machines, drying racks and trays, fertilizers, plastic bags, digital scales, and various other forms of drug production equipment. It was observed throughout the residence that closets contained tin-foil covered walls with hanging lamps and loose potting soil still on the floor where marijuana plants had grown. Two garbage bags containing marijuana leaves were found, and in all, over 6 pounds of processed marijuana was recovered from various jars and bags hidden throughout the residence. In addition to this, over 100 vials containing over 4,000 grams of processed hash oil, and the production equipment for making it, were seized. A large amount of U.S. currency was seized from the residence as well. Towner, who had left the country prior to the warrant’s execution, did not return to the Kent County area until recently, and was arrested on a warrant on 04-01-11.
Ben Armiger says
Joseph Towner is a good man, a valuable member of our community, and my favorite stop at the Chestertown farmers market. I’m sorry to read of this trouble he has gotten in. I can only assume that this will end up like all the others, the county and the Feds take another family farm and make a quick buck to fund their war on drugs. This will have nothing to do with justice and will have no effect on the amount of marijuana consumed in Kent county. It will however put an end to one family’s three or four generation long history of farming on family land.
bill_harrow says
Well Ben, have you ever heard of “Do the crime….Do the time”? Is the community you are speaking about, the mariijuana community? Perhaps Mr. Towner should not have used/disgraced his family farm by growing marijuana.
don sparks says
Just legalize Marijuana ,there will be less killing(Mexico) and our prisons will be less crowded with stupid old laws and maybe the government will use the money they are directing towards prisons and the WAR ON DRUGS AND put that money towards the deficit or rehabilatation.OH YEA THE GOVERNMENT CAN TAX IT ALSO.
bill harrow says
Then whats next, legalize LSD, crack cocaine and heroin. Even if it is legalized, the violence will not stop. The top marijuana prodicing entities will still be able to provide marijuana at a lower cost than anyone else. So the government will place taxes on marijuana which will make it expensive and people will still look to the black market for product. My opinion might change if I knew for sure it would help crime go down, but lets be honest, marijuana is a gate way drug. So more people will be open to trying marijuana and then a percentage of those people will in turn look for a more intense high from a harder drug.
Chris says
Marijuana was demonized during the great depression as moral degradation from immigrants and made illegal in the late 30’s after a political hatchet job designed to discredit hemp production (although hemp has only traces of the actual drug in it). A widespread, not-so-coincidentally supported campaign arose to create fear and convince people that consuming marijuana (and hemp) would turn you into a raging, murderous sex crazed psychopath. (not to mention drawing parallels to fanciful stories of “minorities” brutally raping and murdering young whites) The sheeple ate it up and Dupont successfully demonized a thriving private market out of competition using the Hearst mass media outlet to spread outright , easily disproved lies. (how far we’ve come….)
Harry J. Anslinger spearheaded the anti-marijuana movements as the newly appointed Commissioner of the Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN). He was well known for penning a “police blotter” in The American Magazine wherein he recounted horrific, un-verified (of course) tales of marijuana use. He called it the “Gore File”.
A few excerpts:
“By the tons it is coming into this country — the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms…. Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him….”
“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”
A 1935 FBN issued flier:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Killerdrug.jpg
Not only did the FBN have to manufacture crime statistics, but stage an elaborate print and radio propaganda program to ensure the manufactured information was properly integrated into the public mind. Soon enough, people were, without provocation, assuming and repeating that marijuana (and hemp) consumption was not just a part, but the CAUSE of crime. They believed that it turned you into a murderous monster. They believed that the prohibition Anslinger wanted would solve it.
Since it was made illegal, marijuana use has continually risen and the black market for it has grown… thriving year after year. All federal/state/local attempts to stop its production/sale/use have proven futile… and that futility comes at great cost.
The original claim that the prohibition of marijuana directly resulted in a reduction of crime, violent or not, was dubious from the start. It is equally dubious to claim that legalization would result in the reverse. It was misguided political will, propelled by racism and backed by private investors with upside-down motives that pushed us to where we are.
Analyzing the black market, and the crime associated therein, is a more apt measure of the criminal relationship with prohibition. That discussion isn’t new, nor is the solution.
Daniel Menefee says
The war on drugs has been lost, it is futile and only serves the bureaucracies involved in enforcement. The money we spend on enforcement could be cut and applied towards deficit reduction. We would also be able to tax and regulate it and remove the guns from the equation. Look how much revenue the gov’t gets from tobacco and booze.
Marc Dykeman says
Mr. Harrow, if you had bothered to ask most Chestertown residents about which community Joseph Towner was a member of, you probably would not have insulted him by saying he disgraced his family farm. Just because the government made laws saying that we can and cannot grow certain plants doesn’t mean they (or you) can take the moral high ground in these matters.
I don’t know if decriminalizing marijuana will reduce violence, but it definitely won’t increase it. The real point is that this law, contrary to the goal of Law, is hurting us as a nation. How can prosecuting someone like Joseph be helping anyone? How can incarcerating over 750,000 people for possession of marijuana in 2009 make any economic sense?
Chris says
Considering to house one inmate for one year is roughly $25,000, and adding law enforcement and the judicial process for each – the economic cost of incarcerating persons is quite high. If you account for the opportunity loss from not allowing the product to hit the taxed market, the per person cost grows even more.
Carla Massoni says
Please contact your elected officials if you wish to support the argument to decriminalize marijuana. There are many solid arguments to support this position. But the only way to change the law – is to get involved – or at least let your voice be heard. When the time comes for Joseph’s trial, those in the community who wish to support him can write letters to the officers of the court indicating their wish for leniency. Our family lost a wonderful young man to the violence that drugs can breed. I do not take this lightly. When you light up this weekend, think about the harm being done in the community to provide for your pleasure. Change the law, don’t break it.
bill harrow says
Wow, I never realized how much of a liberal county this is…maybe you all should move to california…..
don sparks says
Mr. Harrow ,just to let you know I’m a Libertarian and believe in individual choices ,so be careful putting people in pigeon holes to meet your bias. Also here is a couple of facts: it is costing the American Taxpayer $30,000 per year to house one inmate, more than what most Americans make in yearly gross salary, and also, which country has the most prisoners housed? You guessed it, the USA, the self proclaimed leader of the free world.So in parting its not about being Conservative, Liberal, or Libertarian, its about opening our minds to a new way of doing things not to say just move to California if you don’t agree with other peoples thoughts. That is just silly.
faith wilson says
I’d also like to respond to Mr. Harrow’s comment about marijuana being a gateway drug. The fact is that alcohol is the main gateway drug, and we all know how prohibition worked out. The main drugs of choice for young people are actually black market but legal narcotics, which are cheaper and much easier to come by than marijuana. I’m speaking from my own sad experience of having a child who became addicted to narcotics, not introduced by trying marijuana, but by drinking alcohol. Of all drugs (including LEGAL tobacco and alcohol) marijuana is probably the most benign. I don’t advocate using any drug, but the war on drugs in this country has not only cost us billions of dollars, but ruined the lives of many people. The absurd number of people incarcerated in this country is a reflection on the failed war on drugs. The money spend on interdiction, justice, incarceration, parole and probation, the staggering amount of money spent on these things could be so much better spent. I’m sure there were many families in Mexico praying that California would legalize pot last year so they could end their own war (brought on by the fact that we are the main consumers of the products and our government insists on their fighting the war on our behalf) – a war that has cost THEM almost as many lives in the last few years as the Viet Nam War cost us. Legalize it, save money, save lives, use the money we save and earn with the taxation of marijuana for education and treatment.
bill_harrow says
Well lets just legalize crack and heroin while we are at it because that it what is next
Chris says
Why exactly would we legalize crack or heroin?
You misunderstand the argument. Marijuana is not crack or heroin. There are substances that have societal and physical costs that make it in the public interest to prohibit. The argument is that marijuana is -not- one of these, and should be treated as such. It is safer and carries less societal cost than the already legal alcohol, but suffered the wrath of a national smear campaign whose claims are (case in point) still assumed to be true.
Crack and heroin need to be argued individually. As someone who finds research on these matters fascinating, I have not found the arguments to legalize all drugs to be persuasive. What I have found is that specific examples, such as the widely used marijuana (1 in 3 Americans), deserves a second look.
D says
Bill-you really need to rethink your position. With caffine, nicotine and alcohol completely legal…encouraged, all arguments against legal pot are just a little hypocritical. Gateway drug, ha, who has never had too much to drink and done something they regret. Thats lowering inhibitions.
Its a terrible shame that this apparently hard working man is going to jail because his country is too…not sure what the word is, to legalize and tax something so obvious.
sam says
I worked for Mr. Towner on and off for several years. I was unaware of the alleged activities he is charged with, but I would like to say that as a farmer, he should be a role model to all the farmers in the community. He is a careful steward of his land and the health of his soil, and it paid off in some of the tastiest vegetables around that he sold at very fair prices. Anyone who ever patronized his stand at the farmers’ market can tell you that.
As far as debates over law and law enforcement, it seems to me that the local law enforcement community receives a tremendous amount of investment, disproportionate to the population of the area. There are robberies, assaults, muggings, and other crimes that go unsolved and un-investigated while they use these resources to go after the “low hanging fruit” of consensual crimes by non-violent offenders. In a town the size of Chestertown, it is a shame that there are neighborhoods where one can’t feel safe on foot while police resources are devoted to investigating and arresting a small-scale and non-violent grower of a plant.
mts says
What saddens me the most is the loss of comfort and care that so many of our ill and cancer stricken citizens will lose. This is a good man, who cared and provided hospice for many. The papers won’t report the real tragedy. Narrow minded journalists and citizens will never realize the difference between drug dealer and care provider. Those who suffer the most will suffer even more at the expense of ignorance.